ShipRecycling Pages:

11 June 2016

Rizwana: HC directives for ship-breaking sector vastly ignored

The state
authorities are yet to implement most of the High Court directives for the sake
of the country's ship-breaking industry, says Bangladesh Environmental Lawyer’s
Association Chief Executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan.

The Bela chief
blamed the government's political will for its controversial role in the
process.

“To make
Bangladeshi's ship-breaking industry clean, the high court imposed some
restrictions while the government wants to promote the ongoing hazardous
situation in the sector,” said Syeda Rizwana Hasan.

Rizwana made the
statement while addressing a conference titled “Supreme Court Directives on
Environmental Justice: Ship-breaking at the National Access to Justice” in
CIRDAP international conference centre in the capital on Saturday.

In the 2010
directives, the HC told the government that: “A hazardous and polluted manners
in the ship-breaking sector cannot continue on the open beaches without proper
safety of the workers and keeping the eco-system of the coastal area
vulnerable”.

The HC opined that
the government has no authority to lease out seashores, coastal areas and
forests for the ship-breaking yards, she continued.

“Leasing out
seashores and the lands of coastal green belt in favour of the ship breakers is
against the public interest, and without lawful authority and legal effect,”
Rizwana said.

Some data presented
by her stated that Bangladesh imported 72 ships in between March 2009 and June
2011 while the number stood at 206 in 2012, 194 in 2013, 222 in 2014 and 194 in
last year.